Minnesota Zoo

We girls were tired of the cold weather and decided to take a break and head to the zoo to visit the indoor animals and pretend it is a warm spring here in Minnesota.   We headed straight to Discovery Bay to check on the baby dolphin and watch them jump and play a bit before heading back to the aquarium area to look at the sharks and other fishes and, of course, our favorite sea horses!

While we were in Discovery Bay, they announced the start of a bird show so we went to check it out, and it was worth our time for sure!  The girls got to see a hawk, a falcon and an owl up close and they were all beautiful birds.  Their favorite was the owl.

We decided that we would walk the Tropics Trail next.  There we got to see lots of warm weather animals and even had a bird leave his fenced in area and walk with us for a while on the path.  The girls thought was the was pretty darn cool.

Finally we ended our morning visit to the zoo with a trip down the Minnesota Trail and managed to find and collect all of our Minnesota animal stamps along the way.  The Bald Eagle and the wild cats were our favorites on this trail.

Our next visit will be in a few weeks with the opening of the Baby Farm Animals event and we never miss it!

Kindergarten Round Up!

Well, the time has finally arrived and the girls had their "big" Kindergarten Round Up today.  Basically it was an hour at school where they met the office staff, some of the Kindergarten teachers, the school principal and got to tour the different classrooms and the SMART room.

Our girls are already very familiar with the SMART room and the lunch room as their preschool uses the same facilities at the elementary school.  They had a lot of fun showing the rooms to mommy and daddy.

The girls had a good time exploring the different teachers classrooms and had different reasons for liking each room.  They are super excited to find out who their teacher will be in the fall, but they will have to wait until early August before we get the big announcement.

We have made the decision to keep the girls together for kindergarten, so they will have the same teacher and be in the same classroom.  It has been a hard decision and we hope it is the right one.   We were told at the registration desk that we were the THIRD set of twins to register for Kindergarten ... WOW!

So, our girls are ready ... although I am sure they will take the time to enjoy summer to the fullest!!

Cookie Surprise!

In the middle of mommy's paperwork session today, we received a phone call from our lovely neighbor, Sherrin!  She had been busy at her home making cut out sugar cookies and found herself tired of rolling and cutting before she finished all the dough she had made ... so ... we were the lucky recipients of some homemade sugar cookie dough as well as a set of spring colored sprinkles she thought the girls would love to use decorating the cookies once mommy rolled them out ... and she was so right!

We had lots of fun rolling out the dough and watching mommy make the cut out shapes.  The girls took over from there and were in charge of decorating the cookies before mommy put them in the oven to bake.  

Ready for the oven!!

We had a good system in place and we were all enjoying cookies before we knew it ...

Thank you Sherrin, we couldn't ask for a better neighbor!!!

It Is Nice Enough To Chalk ... Directly quoted from Miss Madison

So we did!  Daddy was off running errands for mommy this afternoon so the three of us girls headed out to the driveway with our bucket of chalk ready to be used for the first time this year!  We spent better than an hour drawing on the driveway and even took some time for the girls to hop on their scooters for a few runs up and down the driveway.   Can't believe Spring is finally arriving in just one day ... we say we are more than ready!!

Ladybug drawn by Madison:

Unicorn and Princess Fairy drawn by Alyssa:

Rapunzel drawn by Alyssa:

Rapunzel & Flynn Rider from Tangled drawn by mommy:

Happy St. Patrick's Day Dr. Hankerson!

The girls spent their St. Patrick's Day at school in the morning and were surprised to find that a naughty little Leprechaun had made a lot of messes inside their classroom but also left behind chocolate treats in those messes.  

After school, the girls had visits with their dentist, Dr.Hankerson.  Both girls had wonderful exams with no problems so far ... Dr. Hank said it would be a while before Madison loses her first tooth ... so we must learn to practice patience ... :)

Alyssa Loses First Tooth ... Anticipating a Tooth Fairy Visit Tonight!!

Disney on Ice ... Princess Wishes

Today was a busy day in our house!  The girls' day started with a Hawaiian Party at school to celebrate meeting the classes reading goal for the month of February.  The girls got to wear summer outfits to school and enjoy popsickles by a pool in their classroom.  It was also their good friend, Eli's, 5th birthday and he brought a piñata in stuffed full of goodies for his classmates to help break and share the toys and candy.

After a very busy morning at school, they girls had a little bit of time to play before mommy started their princess makeovers before heading to the dinner and the big show!

Mommy and daddy surprised the girls with real tiaras with rhinestones on them ... much nicer than the plastic ones and boy did the girls think they were special wearing those!   They dressed up in their favorite princess dress up clothes and mommy gave each of them a brush white sparkling eye shadow and gave them princess hair.  Daddy thought they looked beautiful and that made them smile, like princesses of course.

We decided to just try out the restaurant right inside the Target Center where the ice show would be taking place.  The restaurant was Hubert's Sport Bar & Grill and we had a wonderful waitress who didn't seem to mind chatting with the girls.   We had a good meal and daddy, despite not feeling the best, managed to eat a salad.

We still had a good amount of time before the doors to the center even opened, so we took the Skyway and walked over to Block E to get the girls a Mrs. Field's cookie for dessert.  We were seeing more and more little princesses and their respective parents walking around the area and the girls enjoyed talking to a few of the little girls to compare dresses and accessories.

Once the doors to the center opened, we made our way through security and then headed to the Princess Pre-Show which amounted to for display areas each holding one of the Disney Princess dresses and some props from their movies.  At the end of the display area, the girls were thrilled and surprised to find the REAL Princess Tiana wearing her beautiful ball gown and waving to them.  Our timing was great for the pre-show as we didn't have to wait or have any crowds to deal with while we viewed the dresses and met Tiana.  By the time we finished our time at the pre-show, there was a rapidly forming and very long line with people waiting for a turn to view the dresses.  We happily went on our way to find our seats in the arena.

The ice was set-up with a beautiful waterfall and Alyssa actually gasped at the sight and exclaimed, "Mommy that is soooooooo beautiful!!"  The girls did a wonderful job waiting for the show to start, we were a bit early and had to wait about 25 minutes after taking our seats.

Mommy and daddy surprised the girls with special princess drinking cups that mommy had bought a month ago at the Disney Store at the Mall of America.  Madison loved her Sleeping Beauty cup and Alyssa loved her Ariel cup.

When the show finally started, the girls were all smiles, waving at Princesses, singing along to songs, squealing, clapping and full of smiles and bright eyes.   The reaction just got better and better with each princess appearing one after the other and they both loved our hostess for the evening, Tinkerbell!

Cinderella and her beautiful carriage were a sight to see!!

Alyssa loved the Little Mermaid segment.

Madison's favorite was Sleeping Beauty.  The fire breathing dragon that appeared during Sleeping Beauty made both girls a little nervous, but they were all smiles again after the prince slayed the dragon and woke up Sleeping Beauty with a kiss.

The finale was wonderful with all the princesses with their princes, Tinkerbell, Cinderella's carriage and fireworks!

The girls were nothing but smiles ... and so were mommy and daddy!  When the lights came up after the show had ended, Madison exclaimed at the top of her lungs ... "This was the BEST DAY EVER!!"